Skewed Merkle Tree for Ledger Pruning
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
As distributed ledgers like blockchain and DAGs experience increased transaction processing speeds, they face storage capacity issues due to growing ledger sizes, necessitating efficient pruning mechanisms to manage data effectively.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a ledger verifiable pruning system utilizing skewed and h-skewed Merkle tree structures, which store only the latest data and verify transaction integrity through hash calculations, reducing the size of proof data and enhancing inspection speed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If transaction processing speed is increased to improve productivity, then ledger size accumulates rapidly causing storage capacity shortage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes old transaction data from the ledger storage using pruning mechanisms. Nodes selectively retain only necessary recent data while discarding historical data that can be reconstructed or verified through cryptographic proofs, thereby extracting the problematic accumulated data volume while preserving essential ledger functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a discarding and recovering mechanism where old data is discarded from node storage but can be recovered through verification proofs. The pruning system allows nodes to discard historical data blocks while maintaining the ability to verify their integrity through cryptographic Merkle tree proofs, enabling data recovery without permanent storage retention.
2Quantity of substance
If traditional pruning is used to delete old data and reduce storage, then storage capacity is reduced but verification of pruned data integrity becomes complex and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-computing and storing Merkle tree root hashes and verification proofs during the data pruning process itself. Instead of performing complex verification calculations when needed, the system prepares verification data in advance during pruning operations, making subsequent integrity checks straightforward and efficient.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces Merkle tree structures as an intermediary mechanism between pruned data and verification processes. The Merkle tree serves as a mathematical mediator that enables efficient integrity verification of pruned data without requiring nodes to store or process the actual historical data, simplifying the verification complexity while maintaining security.
3Reliability
If all nodes store complete historical data to ensure verification capability, then storage capacity requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses cryptographic copying through Merkle tree proofs where instead of storing complete historical data, nodes store compact verification proofs that copy only the essential verification information. These proof copies enable full verification capability while occupying minimal storage space compared to complete data replication.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the storage parameter from complete data blocks to compact cryptographic hashes and Merkle tree proofs. By transforming the stored information from full transaction data to condensed hash representations, the system maintains verification capability while dramatically reducing the quantity of stored data through parameter transformation.
Data Source
AI summary
A ledger verifiable pruning system includes a skewed Merkle tree production module in which according to a linked list scheme, root hash value Rn−1 of a previous sub-tree is included in data block Tn, data block Tn in which root has value Rn−1 is included is hashed, thereby obtaining h(Tn), obtained h(Tn) and root hash value Rn−1 of the previous sub-tree are summated and then hashed, thereby obtaining h(h(Tn)|Rn−1), and obtained h(h(Tn)|Rn−1) is successively added to respective nodes of a binary Merkle tree structure to expanding and produces a skewed Merkle tree.